A New Type Of Chocolate Has Been Invented: Blond Chocolate

Talk about blond ambition. Valrhona Chocolate, the 90-year-old luxury French chocolate producer and one of the leaders of the fair trade "bean to bar" movement, is launching its first-ever U.S. brick and mortar store in DUMBO, Brooklyn this spring. Besides releasing high-quality versions of chocolate forms we're already familiar with, Valrhona will also debut an entirely new type of chocolate. That's right. You thought there was only milk, dark, and white chocolate, but Valrhona has introduced us to caramel-colored blond chocolate.

The founding director of Valrhona's L'École du Grand Chocolat (a pastry and chocolate craft school), Frédéric Bau, who developed the new variety in secret for eight years, calls the first blond variety "Dulcey" and describes it as having "a delicately sweet taste, intense biscuit flavors with a pinch of salt, a creamy texture, hints of caramelized milk, and unique blond color." Blond chocolate is roughly a light caramel hue and is "creamy and toasty" in texture.

"With the opening of L'École du Grand Chocolat Brooklyn in DUMBO Valrhona brings its spirit of developing creativity and camaraderie among culinary professionals to its America for the first time," Valrhona representatives said. The chocolate shop will also offer candy- and pastry-making classes for amateur gourmands.